Shamans have always been the move "glass cannony" class. In wotlk ele shamans relied on their heals as defense and Astra Shift while stunned which helped them a lot, also with high armor they were more of a turret-like cannon.

But seeing as cata removed their heal efficiency and since armor didn't matter that much, combined with lava burst doing shit dmg due to the flame shock talent that would reset LvB.

Now we're in MoP where everybody relies on burst cooldowns.
Armor kind-of matters IMO and the heals are very good (until 5.1 that is), and since ele shamans finally have a defensive tier they CAN be more defensive than wotlk/cata.

Seeing ele shamans have the best on demand burst if they can pull it off right now they shouldnt have too many defensive abilities. They still have earthgrab totem/absorb totem when specced into and they have a stun.

If you ask me your brother just rolled the wrong class or doesn't know how to play defensively. If he wants to be more tanky than he should've rolled a mage or something.

I don't think it's right to quit just because you're class is bad. I'm not having too bad of a time with ele or enhance though it could be better, i'm just waiting for the day when they do buff them more than they should like they always seem to do with underpowered specs, just see all those that did good with what they had before wrecking everyone.

It's not right or wrong. He can quit if he wants. I had a friend that quit because of the healing changes in Cata. He knows it was because he was too bad to adapt to them, but he would blame Blizzard, paladins, etc., anything except himself, until you talked to him while he was drunk and then he'd lament that he was bad and felt horrible for being such a bad healer.

your brother, you, or anyone has the right to quit ANY game they play for ANY reason. just because it seems silly to you, or someone else, or hell even the entire population of the game, it doesnt necessarily make it any less valid.

if someone isnt having fun playing a game i really see no point in continuing to play it. its the sole reason i stopped playing WoW. not because i thought classes were imbalanced, although i did in some aspects, it was because the game just wasnt fun for me anymore, and in my opinion theres absolutely nothing wrong with that

Shamans have always been the move "glass cannony" class. In wotlk ele shamans relied on their heals as defense and Astra Shift while stunned which helped them a lot, also with high armor they were more of a turret-like cannon.

But seeing as cata removed their heal efficiency and since armor didn't matter that much, combined with lava burst doing shit dmg due to the flame shock talent that would reset LvB.

Now we're in MoP where everybody relies on burst cooldowns.
Armor kind-of matters IMO and the heals are very good (until 5.1 that is), and since ele shamans finally have a defensive tier they CAN be more defensive than wotlk/cata.

Seeing ele shamans have the best on demand burst if they can pull it off right now they shouldnt have too many defensive abilities. They still have earthgrab totem/absorb totem when specced into and they have a stun.

If you ask me your brother just rolled the wrong class or doesn't know how to play defensively. If he wants to be more tanky than he should've rolled a mage or something.

pretty accurate apart from the armor in wrath =P armor was kinda pointless in wrath since every melee class and hunters stacked armor pen =P

Originally Posted by Zombiebob

I'm still waiting on someone to tell me where all these people that suddenly care about Warrior balance were during Cataclysm when they were blow up dolls with plate armor on.

Originally Posted by cutterx2202

Stop complaining to solve your lack of ability, and start reading and practicing to gain ability. Stop trying to bring people down to your level instead of striving to raise yours.

elemental is a one trick pony and enhancement is a dk with a better purge, the totem nerf is completely stupid and doesn't solve what the problem is (burst healing/ tremor) for resto, the problem is further amlified by ghostcrawler not knowing his game mechanics when it comes to pvp in the slightest, as shown by his silencing an enhancement is like disarming a mage and saying people don't silence an enhancement for the kill (in case you don't know silencing them prevents defensive cds and in the patch using totems)

Haven't the dps specs always been kinda crap? There hasn't been any fundamental change - elemental is still utterly reliant on being able to free cast, enhancement is still lacking in any kind of control over his targets. I mean honestly if someone asked me what's the major difference between a TBC shaman and a MoP shaman I'd be like.. uh.. no totems?

So yeah, I'm just wondering why he'd quit now if he's put up with the class for eight years. Although I'll admit my experiments with dps specs have been rather limited - I love healing and resto is so good, I feel rather useless as a dps (when comparing the two).

and yet rogues can pull there weight in a 3v3 or 5v5 match. the controll of and burst of a rogue is still someting to watch out for.

it just went from a fotm/dps class to a controll and burst on demand class.

Ive come against several comps with shamans in (in 3s) and theyre CRAZY GOOD. The hardest being arms warrior, frost dk, ele shaman. (we were also playing a 3 dps team) but they blew our entire team up in seconds. Elemental has INCREDIBLY good single target burst, and very high sustained AOE with CL if the other team is bunched up (during a dk grip, or warrior dragonroar). Theyre also a force to be reckoned with in RBG's.

Either your brother isn't playing the class to his maximum potential, his team mates arn't, or he's simply playing in a field where hes at a disadvantage to other slightly OP classes. (such as warriors, and hunters this season).

I fear what is actually the case, is; he's playing okay (not great) and even an 'ok' ele can't be ignored. They put out too much damage to be left alone, so chances are he is being trained alot. Yes every class has defensive's, and learning to make the most of them can be the biggest part of pvp. Choosing your battles, knowing when to run away. Alot of this comes down to good synergy with your team mates aswell.

He may find himself being a somewhat fleshy meat shield, for most of the game, with huge burst for only a few seconds, but that can be enough to cripple even the best team if executed correctly. Don't take the road of less resistance and quit. Persevere and shine!

Shamans are decent, no reason to quit.
And generally I don't think it's a good idea to quit or reroll just because one class is currently weak (or you perceive it as weak). Patches change things around all the time, and also if you really like your class/spec you will always be competitive enough with it.
There were even some 2500+ rated Holy Priests or Resto Druids in the last Cataclysm season, which were really at the bottom of efficiency. Some considered them unplayable.